China’s state-backed blockchain alliances features big cryptocurrency and financial companies. One of the first name brands to join the ‘Blockchain Services Network Alliance’ (BSN) is Huobi China.

Huobi China, which is a part of global bitcoin and crypto exchange conglomerate Huobi Group, revealed its participation at the Blockchain Service Network Partner Conference.

The company’s Chinese-based operations do not include the trading of cryptocurrency. “It is not an exchange. It is a fully compliant legal entity in China doing blockchain education and blockchain solutions for large corporations, solely focused on blockchain technology, said Ciara Sun, chief of staff of Huobi Group. Read More

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has removed crypto mining activities as an unwanted industry from its Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalog.

China has long been a mining leader in the crypto industry. As a world leader in computer hardware generally, the country was in a unique position to take lead the way when it came to mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As in most hardware-intensive industries, the lion’s share of cryptocurrency mining hardware comes from China. Read More

One Country, One System?

China could change its “one country, two systems” arrangement that has been in place since 1997. The agreement stipulates that the United States is legally bound to treat Hong Kong separately from mainland China for matters concerning trade and economic policy. With troops from the mainland at the border of Hong Kong, the protests and trade war could escalate. Read More

Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant the U.S. government fears could be used by the Chinese government to spy and sabotage infrastructure, is a crucial contributor to the development of fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks worldwide. Yet, Washington’s fear led the Commerce Department to add Huawei to its “entity list” in May 2019, forbidding Huawei to buy U.S. goods without permission from the government.

Huawei, which is the world’s biggest seller of telecommunications equipment like new 5G network infrastructure and second-largest smartphone maker, is based in Shenzhen, China. It helps connectivity in some rural areas in the US. Read More

Tens of thousands of young people – for the most part –  descended upon Hong Kong’s government headquarters on Wednesday, and police fired tear gas and rubber bullets back. The debate was over a controversial bill, allowing fugitives to be extradited to China and other jurisdictions with which Hong Kong has no rendition agreement. Read More

Beijing is threatening to cut Washington off from rare earth minerals, according to media reports in China’s papers that included quotes from the state planning agency. The stocks of rare earth producers were up following the news.

One newspaper included the Chinese phrase “don’t say I didn’t warn you”, which the country used before it went to war with India. The paper wrote “those familiar with Chinese diplomatic language know the weight of this phrase.” The language, which appeared in the Global Times, a newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party, was also employed ahead of conflict between China and Vietnam in 1979.

The People’s Daily made it clear China would use the elements as retaliation in its trade war. 80% of U.S. rare earth supplies come from China.

The editor-in-chief of the Global Times tweeted that China is “seriously” weighing the restriction of rare earth exports to the U.S. and could also implement countermeasures.

A National Development & Reform Commission official told CCTV that people in the country won’t be happy to see products made as exported rare earths are being used to suppress China’s development. Editorials in the Global Times and Shanghai Securities News took similar stances in their Wednesday editions.

The U.S. is dependent on importing rare earth minerals from China, which are used in electronics, hybrid vehicles, and energy storage systems. The U.S. imports the rare earth materials because it’s cheaper than producing them domestically.

This is driving rare earth stocks up with the help of President Xi Jinping, who visited a plant earlier this month along with his chief trade negotiator with the U.S.

China already raised tariffs on America’s sole producer of rare earths from 10% to 25%. The U.S., however, excluded rare earths from its list of prospective tariffs on roughly $300 billion in Chinese goods.

In December 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reduce the country’s dependence on external sources of critical minerals, including rare earths, which was aimed at reducing U.S. vulnerability to supply disruptions.

China’s rare earth market:

• China Northern Rare Earth Group
• Minmetals Rare Earth Co.
• Xiamen Tungsten Co.
• Chinalco Rare Earth & Metals Co.

Shares of JL Mag Rare-Earth increased by 10% while Innuovo Technology increased by 9.95%. The shares of Australia rare earth miner Lynas also increased by more than 10%.

“We’ve been here before,” Fraser Howie, an independent analyst, told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Wednesday. China banned the export of rare earth minerals to Japan after Tokyo detained a Chinese fishing trawler captain.

Norway’s exports of salmon plummeted after Beijing curbed them. That move was seen as retaliation to a Norwegian committee’s decision in 2010 to award a Chinese dissident the Nobel Prize.

A cold war in the 21st-century seemed unlikely… until now.

Tariffs by the United States on $200 billion worth of Chinese products and retaliatory tariffs by China on $60 billion worth of American goods went into effect on Monday.

While the United States and China are competing for global supremacy, they maintain mutual agreements to handle their complicated relationship. But, the tide might be turning…
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Jim Rogers, author of “A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World’s Greatest Market” and a renowned investor who co-founded the first global investment fund with George Soros in 1973, has made numerous extraordinary predictions about trade market in the past, including the fall of the US dollar.
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The latest tariffs on American and Chinese goods aren’t as severe as expected, making stocks rise on Tuesday. Substantial profits in tech also propelled market gains.

The S&P 500 increased 0.5 percent to close at 2,904.31, headed by buyer discretionary spending and industrials. It is also less than half a percent from its record high. Read More

Gold refineries in Switzerland sent a record amount of gold to Shanghai last December, and Russia is buying gold in droves as well, as the United States experiences a time of tumultuous politics and the european banking system is reported to be on the verge of collapse.

Figures released at the end of January by Federal Customs Administrations showed that Switzerland, a world leader in gold production, sent 158 tonnes of gold to China, a five time increase over November’s sum and nearly three times the volume in December 2015. Read More

Numerous nations throughout the world are currently dealing with currency or debt crises of one kind or another. Greece has stolen the headlines where they’ve needed to secure a bailout from the European Union so as to not go broke, and Puerto Rico, a US protectorate, has said it will not have the funds to service its debt. The Chinese stock market has collapsed with the government instituting controls to prop it up, while in Venezuela inflation ravages the food aisle, which have gone bear in recent months.

In China, you see gold is clear winner in the wake of recent turmoil. Included in this article are the regional interest data points from Google Trends.

Included in this article are the data points for regional interest. In China, regional interest in Bitcoin is different than the other countries. Whereas in Greece, Puerto Rico and Venezuela interest in Bitcoin is tied to the main cities of the country, in China the interest appears more diffuse. 

As you see below, interest in both gold and Bitcoin have increased in terms of Google Trends search queries in Greece. Gold has seen a modest spike, while Bitcoin is clear winner in terms of new, recent interest in Greece.

As in the remaining countries, precious metals queries occurs throughout the nation, while Bitcoin queries is more-so located in Athens. 

In Venezuela, gold and Bitcoin have seen an increase in search queries, silver not so much.

 

And regional interest in Venezuela: 

 In Puerto Rico, similar trends: 

 

 

Gold antiquities looted from China were returned by a French billionaire after a long effort by Beijing to recoup pillaged art. The antiquities were purchased by billionaire luxury tycoon François Pinault. The four gold heads of prey birds are worth €1 million (£710,000). Mr Pinault, owner of brands from Gucci to Saint Laurent, donated the 7th century BC solid gold works to Paris’s Guimet museum of Asian art  15 years ago.

It was soon discovered the antiquities were stolen in 1992 from the tomb of a noble of the Zhou dynasty in Gansu province. China says the birds of prey were pillaged amid a wave of thefts in the early-to-mid nineties by farmers in the western state of Qins. A corrupt civil servant apparently smuggled the antiques out of China and Mr Pinault bought the birds of prey unsuspectingly.

 

Chinese authorities filed a complaint 10 years ago, but discreetly maintained they wanted a diplomatic restitution. Art Newspaper reported in April that Mr Pinault handed the four birds of prey heads to the Chinese embassy in Paris and did not ask for compensation.

Another collector,  Christian Deydier, returned 28 other artefacts. China promotes the repatriation of pillaged works, putting pressure on auction houses to cancel sales of items and even buying them via a corporate offshoot of the people’s Liberation Army, the China Poly Group. China  has a big thirst for gold as the world’s largest consumer of gold.

Photo: Rex Features. 

 

Trading on the New York Stock Exchanged resumed Wednesday after being halted for about four hours due to “unknown internal technical reasons.”  Internal technical issues are being cited for the reason why NYSE shut down trading at 11:32am EST, which also shut down trading on the NYSE MKT exchange, a market where small companies are traded.

In August 2013 a “Flash Freeze” shut the Nasdaq down for hours, as a “problem with NYSE systems” was blamed.  Today’s is but the fourth trading halt at the NYSE due to technical problems in 15 years.  Stock trading did not cease completely, as NYSE-listed stocks were still being traded on 11 other exchanges, like the Nasdaq. Read More

The 21st Century Digital Currency Arm’s Race: America’s Only Hope?

So, let’s be clear: 56.7577° N, 86.4196° W and 40.4230° N, 98.7372° W. In the former geographical coordinates, Bitcoin is free of banking regulation. However, in the latter, Bitcoin is not free from banking regulation.

The case grows increasingly murky in 32.9043° N, 110.4677° E, otherwise known as China. Perhaps the geographical coordinates of 35.1234° S, 71.5720° W – that is Chile – will keep with their recent history of laissez-faire economic policies and be kind to Bitcoin.

Or maybe one with bitcoins would be best off at 18.1667° S, 178.4500° E, far away from civilization in Fiji. Read More